Philip Diamond and his partner Kevin Tilden were fed up with the constant maintenance of their postage-stamp front lawn. Cathy and George Roswell covered their lawn with mulch in an effort to cut soaring water bills. Nan Sterman endured a lawn in her backyard only while her children were growing up.

Today, instead of swaths of traditional green grass, all three enjoy colorful new gardens that give them added pleasures while requiring less maintenance and water. In saying goodbye to lawns, these homeowners are among a growing number opting for landscapes better suited to San Diego’s Mediterranean climate.

“It’s not grass, it’s lawn I don’t like,” says Sterman, a horticulturist and author who teaches classes on lawn removal and replacement. “It’s too resource intensive. You water it a couple times a week and fertilize it regularly. You prune it weekly – that’s what mowing is – and haul the clippings off to the dump, all with fossil fuel-using vehicles. It makes no sense.”

Getting rid of lawn can be a simple as renting a sod cutter, stripping the turf about 2 inches down and hauling it away. Or it can be as time-consuming as spraying several times with an herbicide to destroy the stubborn roots of Bermuda grass. (To learn more, consult the how-to classes in the resource list below.)

Once the lawn is gone, landscape options abound. Diamond and Tilden collaborated with landscape designer Tom Mooney of Calavo Landscape to craft a garden of sculptural succulents outside their Mission Hills bungalow.

When the Bermuda grass lawn in the rear of her Olivenhain home was finally obliterated, Sterman installed a new patio with seating, a fire ring and stylish fountain, and planted meadow of low-growing ornamental grasses studded with bulbs and annuals.

The Roswells enjoy a mix of flowering Mediterranean plants, bulbs and succulents, along with the roses Cathy loves, in the makeover of her Oceanside front yard by landscape designer Ruth E. Wolfe.

Here are the details of each new landscape.

Oceanside: Beauty on a Budget

As their water bills climbed to more than $130 a month, the Roswells decided to “stop throwing money down the drain” and let their front lawn die. When a DIY-makeover proved too difficult, they covered the shriveled grass with compost. “We looked like a foreclosed home,” said Cathy.

Months later, Roswell contacted Ruth E. Wolfe after seeing one of her waterwise garden designs that included roses. “I told her I wanted an English garden look but without high water bills,” she recalled. “I didn’t want just succulents because we can grow so much more here.”

Today, fragrant ‘Double Delight,’ ‘Chrysler Imperial,’ ‘Barbra Streisand’ and other roses are clustered near a new decomposed granite path that curves to the entry of the Roswell home. A new drip irrigation system delivers the moisture roses need, while keeping the majority of the garden’s plants on the dry side.

A trio of boulders at the peak of the contoured yard is backed by a strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo ‘Marina’) and circled by a deft mix of flowering plants with blue and yellow blooms – Cathy’s favorite colors. Among them are Agapanthus ‘Storm Cloud,’ Salvias ‘Savannah Blue’ and ‘Anthony Parker,’ blue bearded iris, vanilla-scented heliotrope, fernleaf lavender and a sunny day lily called ‘Move Over Moon.’ Throughout the year, daffodils, Dutch iris, amaryllis, scilla, zephyranthes, species gladiolus, Urginea maritima and other bulbs pop seasonal color into the flower-filled scene.